Lot 504. A superb and very rare carved Ding 'Peony' dish, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 10 ¼ in. (26 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 400,000 - USD 600,000. Price realised USD 948,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

The shallow dish is elegantly potted with slightly rounded sides rising to a wide, everted rim. The interior is carved with two large peony blossoms borne on undulating, leafy stems, and the rim is carved with classic scroll. The dish is covered overall with a warm ivory-white glaze below the unglazed rim mounted with a copper band, cloth box.

Provenance: C. T. Loo & Co, by 1941.
The Forbes Family Collection, Naushon Island, Massachusetts.
Eskenazi, London, 2007, no. C3670.

Literature: C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1941, no. 570.
Eskenazi, Song Chinese ceramics 10th to 13th century (part 3), New York and London, 2007, pp. 22-23, no. 4.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 46-47, no. 11.

Exhibited: C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1 November 1941 to 30 April 1942.
Eskenazi, Song Chinese ceramics 10th to 13th century (part 3), New York, 19 to 31 March 2007.
Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Note: The current dish is a classic example of the finest Ding wares produced in the Northern Song dynasty, circa 11th-12th century, so admired by connoisseurs for their lustrous ivory-toned glaze and superbly fluent carving. Such dishes would have been used as service sets in a sumptuous banquet context, probably at the imperial court. An almost identical Ding dish, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Tsai Meifen, Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou: White Ding Wares from the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, p. 69, no. II-24. A closely related Ding dish with a floral spray meandering towards one side of the center, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is illustrated by John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, London, 1994, p. 47, no. 22. 

There appear to be two other types of floral motifs on carved Ding dishes of this form. One type has two flower heads with serrated petals borne on a leafy stem, such as two examples in the National Palace Museum Collection, illustrated by Tsai Meifen, Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou: White Ding Wares from the collection of the National Palace Museum, op. cit., pp. 72-73, no. II-27.28; and another example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 32 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 76, no. 67. The other type has a continuous scroll with lotus blooms, buds, pods, and curled leaves, such as the example in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, Tokyo, 1980, no. 16; the dish included in the exhibition at Eskenazi Ltd., London, Principal Wares of the Song Period from a Private Collection, 8-29 May 2015, no. 6; and a further example in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Tokyo National Museum Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from The Yokogawa Tamisuke Collection, Tokyo, 2012, no. 22.